Illinois

Illinois Exports and Foreign Investment

In 2025, Illinois exported $80.0 billion of goods to the world. In 2023, exports from Illinois supported an estimated 283 thousand jobs (latest data available).

Exports from Illinois and Jobs

• Illinois was the 5th largest state exporter of goods in 2025.
• In 2025, Illinois goods exports were $80.0 billion, an increase of 26 percent ($17 billion) from its export level in 2015.
• Illinois goods exports in 2023 supported an estimated 283 thousand jobs (latest data available). Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Manufacturing Exports from Illinois and Jobs

• In 2025, Illinois exported $73.9 billion of manufactured products.
• Illinois exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 240 thousand jobs in 2023 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is chemicals, which accounted for $15.5 billion of Illinois total goods exports in 2025.
• Other top manufacturing exports are machinery, except electrical ($12.4 billion), computer & electronic products ($11.0 billion), transportation equipment ($7.3 billion), and food & kindred products ($5.2 billion).

Exports Sustain Thousands of Illinois Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 21,929 companies exported from Illinois locations in 2023 (latest data available). Of those, 19,462 (89 percent) were small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
• Small and medium-sized firms generated 24.0 percent of Illinois total exports of goods in 2023.

Illinois's Largest Export Markets

• The state’s largest export market was Canada. Illinois exported $17.5 billion in goods to Canada in 2025, representing 22 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Canada was followed by Mexico ($12.0 billion), Australia ($4.4 billion), Germany ($4.3 billion), and the Netherlands ($4.2 billion).
• Illinois goods exports to major world areas included:

• 51 percent of Illinois goods exports ($40.5 billion) in 2025 went to current FTA partners.

Illinois's Top Agricultural Exports

• Illinois is the country’s 3rd largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $11.1 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2024 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).1
• Top agricultural exports were:

	2024 Value	2024 State Rank
soybeans	$4.0 billion	1
corn	$2.1 billion	2
feeds and other feed grains	$1.4 billion	2
soybean meal	$1.0 billion	1
pork	$679 million	4

International Investment Creates Jobs in Illinois

• In 2023 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed an estimated 384 thousand workers in Illinois. Major sources of foreign investment in Illinois included the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan.

Illinois’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

• In 2024 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Illinois recorded goods exports: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin ($56.7 billion), St. Louis ($16 billion), Peoria ($5.4 billion), Davenport-Moline-Rock Island ($5.1 billion), Rockford ($4 billion), Decatur ($2.8 billion), Kankakee ($2.2 billion), Paducah ($838.9 million), Champaign-Urbana ($604.8 million), Bloomington ($213.1 million), Cape Girardeau ($142.5 million), and Springfield ($112.5 million).